The Three Pillars of ObamaCare

What President Obama should have said to the American public is this: “If I like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.”

Of course this pitch, though closer to the truth, wouldn’t have been nearly so appealing. But—really—he never did sell ObamaCare to the public anyway.

Still, now you know for sure: it doesn’t matter what you thought about your health insurance policy; it matters what the government, which wants you to defray the costs of a massive overhaul of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, thought of your health care policy.

The president can’t, at this point, just come out and say he told us a porkie pie. Instead, he blames others. He says that those who don’t like ObamaCare are spreading "a lot of confusion and misinformation" and "being grossly misleading, to say the least." I think this is what shrinks call projection.

Mr. Obama went on to tell those who are losing their choice of coverage that they're not being fired, they're merely being restructured. The "underinsured"—his term—get "a better deal" under ObamaCare, he said, and anyone who says otherwise is "defending the remnants of the old, broken system as if it was working for people."

But the insurance was working for people, which is why they bought the policies. If the federal exchanges really were better, Mr. Obama wouldn't have needed to outlaw the old product and compel everyone to buy the new, government-approved version.

The Journal also takes into consideration the mendacity of the president’s Boston appearance:

By the way, Mr. Obama spoke at Faneuil Hall because that's where Mitt Romney signed an ObamaCare prototype into law in 2006. His political advisers must have thought it was crafty for the President to invoke the former Governor as political cover. You can almost hear the operatives hooting in the West Wing—yeah, the press will love that!

Voters may recall Mr. Romney as the Republican candidate the Obama campaign said was responsible for the death of a Missouri steelworker's wife, among many other White House inventions. But on Wednesday Mr. Obama cited Mr. Romney as a political model who did "the right thing on health care" and built "this template of proven, bipartisan success."

More than the glitches—so called—the president’s false selling points reveal something crucial about this president and his administration. As Charles Krauthammer notes this morning:

Every disaster has its moment of clarity. Physicist Richard Feynman dunks an O-ring into ice water and everyone understands instantly why the shuttle Challenger exploded. This week, the Obamacare O-ring froze for all the world to see: Hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters went out to people who had been assured a dozen times by the president that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period.”

PODCAST

Modern Feminist

Features

Book Store

IWF on TWITTER

Independent Women’s Forum’s mission is to improve the lives of Americans by increasing the number of women who value free markets and personal liberty. Sister organization of Independent Women’s Voice.